Trail of Shadows
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Mike Allen. Broken Eye, $21.99 trade paper (276p) ISBN 978-1-940372-72-3
Allen (Slow Burn) underwhelms a bit in this spooky but familiar account of mysterious occurrences in Appalachia. Recent college dropout Nathan decided to through-hike the Appalachian Trail, hoping to outrun the ghastly creatures that seemed to be trailing him on his college campus. But the hike proves no escape. Instead, through a close encounter with several of these monsters as he tries to rescue a child who’s fallen into danger on the trail, he discovers supernatural abilities of his own when he shape-shifts into a huge, pantheresque monster himself. Worse, his panther alter ego is a powerful attraction for the most dangerous of his kind. Nathan must learn all he can about his heritage, including searching through his memories of his Native American grandmother as quickly as possible if he hopes to stand a chance against the monsters that pursue him. The concept doesn’t feel particularly original and the prose leans distractingly purple at times, but horror fans will find some decidedly creepy scenes if they persevere. It’s a mixed bag. (Oct.)
Ancient as the Stars
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Maya Darjani. Starshot Press, $22 (400p) ISBN 979-8-8691-7724-7
Darjani’s Broken Union series debut is an assured space opera with a fascinating, time-bending premise. It opens in the 24th century, with discontented flight officer Ren Yilmaz of the Earth Spaceship Hawking, being dressed down by a commanding officer, who happens to be her ex-husband. Ren considers herself the “classic star that flamed out too early, who gave up on her career, who used words and scowls as armor,” but she remains determined to be “somebody, one day.” When the ESS Hawking unexpectedly jumps 62 years into the future, she gets to see just who she turns out to be, coming face to face with her future self: the confident, happily married, and mysteriously immortal Earth Union Fleet Capt. Karenna Yilmaz. Ren and Karenna clash, but find common cause in fighting Badal, a terrorist group contesting Earth’s control of human colonies. While the military plot is fun, Darjani’s true strength lies in characterization, making both Yilmazes sympathetic but flawed in different ways and mining impressive psychological depth out of their differences and similarities. It’s a promising start. (Self-published)
Dark Sisters
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Kristi DeMeester. St. Martin’s, $29 (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-28681-9
This thrilling horror outing from DeMeester (Such a Pretty Smile) blends queer romance and supernatural vengeance across three timelines, all of which revolve around the Dark Sisters, an urban legend haunting the small town of Hawthorne Springs. In the 1750s, Anne, a widow skilled in herbal medicine, is forced to flee into the woods with her daughter, Florence, amid widening accusations of witchcraft. There they discover a mysterious tree that Anne recognizes as possessing “ancient power.” In the 1950s, Mary, a deeply frustrated housewife, falls in love with kindred spirit Sharon, but their forbidden affair ends tragically. And in the early 2000s, Camilla, a teenager whose father is the pastor of the powerful, cultlike church that presides over the town with an iron fist, discovers that she is deeply linked to the Dark Sisters. DeMeester’s electrifying prose conjures three wonderfully complex female leads, though Camilla’s voice feels just a tad less developed than the other two women. After a somewhat slow start, the novel hits its stride at the halfway point, from which it gallops along to a breathtaking conclusion in which the three timelines converge and the heroines face down a generational evil. Grotesque, weird, and entirely unflinching, this tale of female empowerment packs a punch. (Dec.)
Lies Weeping: Vol. 1 of the Black Company Saga: A Pitiless Rain or, the Orphans’ Tale
Glen Cook. Tor, $29.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-250-39799-7
After 25 years, Cook returns to the grim world of his cult classic Chronicles of the Black Company series (last visited in Soldiers Live) with an exhilarating spin-off launch. The focus is on the next generation of an elite group of mercenaries that doubles as “a sad, constantly squabbling, dysfunctional makeshift family.” Seeking a degree of safety and a chance to regroup, the Company heads to its old refuge of Hsien in the Land of Unknown Shadows. Once there, however, they are treated as a threat by Hsien’s warlords, who fear that members of the Company plan to become Shadowmasters, “wicked and capricious sorcerer-kings” who once ruled the city. Cook’s characteristically luminous prose elevates the ensuing military fantasy drama (“We chip off the jagged edges and polish up the rest of our memories... thus do we create nostalgia for a place that never really was”). This volume also makes clear that there are plenty of fascinating corners of this sprawling world left to explore, especially given a reference to the “ten thousand examples of evil behavior” not yet recorded in the Company’s annals. Cook’s cadre of fans will find this well worth the wait. (Nov.)
An Echo of Children
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Ramsey Campbell. Flame Tree, $26.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-78758-978-0
The latest suspenseful thriller from World Horror Convention Grand Master Award winner Campbell (The Incubations) drips with insinuated supernaturalism that makes its drama all the more unsettling. Jude and Thom Clarendon are doting grandparents to six-year-old Dean. They’re dismayed to discover that Dean’s parents, Allan and Coral, have, since their move to a new home in Barnwall, on the eastern coast of England, abruptly changed their parenting style, including removing Dean from school for home instruction heavily steeped in strict Christian theology. Jude investigates the history of Dean’s new neighborhood, disturbed to discover that it was once the site of a Viking slaughter of children, and that Dean’s house’s previous owners tortured and dismembered their adopted son while “attempting to purge him of wickedness.” This morbid discovery serves as a chilling recontextualization for Dean’s new imaginary friend, a decapitated boy. Campbell plays his cards close to the vest, enjoining the reader to judge whether Dean’s home is truly haunted by a malignant supernatural influence or whether his grandparents are giving in to paranoia when they resort to desperate measures to “save” him. The result is sure to please readers who like their horrors open to speculation. (Sept.)
The Place Where They Buried Your Heart
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Christina Henry. Berkley, $30 (320p) ISBN 978-0-593953-95-2
A woman who has spent her life in the horrifying shadow of a haunted house is tormented by death, paranoia, and shocking personal revelations in this spooky but familiar domestic horror drama from bestseller Henry (The House That Horror Built). As a child, Jessie Campanelli dared her younger brother, Paul, to go into the dilapidated and reportedly haunted McIntyre House, the site of a slaughter years earlier, only for Paul to never return. Shattered by his disappearance, Jessie’s family disintegrates, leaving her in the care of Ted Dobrowski, single father to bad boy Alex. Jessie grows up and attempts to leave behind the horrors of the past to start a new family—until the McIntyre House begins claiming new souls, dragging Jessie back to its dusty, rotten innards as she tries to end the house’s reign of terror before it claims yet another life dear to her. Atmospheric and full of dread, the novel shines when it focuses on the tensions and terror inherent to Jessie’s family dynamics. Well-trod haunted house story beats frequently give way to cliché, however. It’s a mixed-bag. Agent: Lucienne Diver, Knight Agency. (Nov.)
Girl Dinner
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Olivie Blake. Tor, $29.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-250-88345-2
Bestseller Blake (The Atlas Six) serves up a lightly satirical and somewhat drawn out feminist horror novel about the extreme toll that comes from trying to “have it all.” It follows Sloane, a sociology professor who’s returning to work after being home with her infant daughter for 18 months, and Nina, a sophomore at Sloane’s university who’s rushing the most sought-after sorority on campus, referred to only as the House. Sloane struggles with feeling as though she has abandoned her daughter and still doesn’t have enough time or brainpower to devote to her work, including her new position as faculty adviser to the House. Nina, meanwhile, yearns for the clout that comes from membership in the House, whose sisters are the most successful and beautiful girls on campus. There’s a lot of delicate buildup hinting at the House’s hidden darkness, but it takes a frustratingly long time to amount to anything. Instead, much of the book is taken up by philosophizing that covers what is essentially feminism 101—from the Madonna/whore dichotomy to the rise of tradwives—which may be enlightening to younger readers encountering these concepts for the first time, but to most will feel familiar and obvious. Fortunately, the bloody payoff, when it finally arrives, is well worth the wait. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but Blake’s fans will find plenty to hold their attention. (Oct.)
The Seventh Champion
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Sylvia Mercedes. Ace, $19 trade paper (464p) ISBN 978-0-59395-223-8
With delicious banter and a tightly woven plot, Mercedes (Bride of the Shadow King) once again entices readers into a romantasy world they’ll be loathe to leave. Apothecary’s assistant Rosie Harpwood lives a quiet life with the woman who took her in after her parents were killed by dracori, humanoid dragons. Then she learns that she’s the long-lost daughter of the wicked Dragon Queen, and potentially the only one strong enough to defeat her. Spirited away to the High King’s underground palace, she’s feted as a potential savior, though she’ll need a champion (read: husband) at her side to defeat the Dragon Queen. So the High King hosts a tournament with Rosie’s hand in marriage as the prize. Enter Valtar, a dracori on a mission to kill Rosie and deliver her heart to the Dragon Queen himself. He hatches a plan to join the competition in order to get closer to the princess. As the trials progress, the pair develop an unexpected but genuine connection and the stakes turn deadly, leaving both Rosie and Valtar with terrible choices. Sharp dialogue, plentiful action, and well-developed characters build a fascinating foundation for Mercedes’s promising new series. This is pure popcorn. Agent: Amanda Jain, BookEnds Literary. (Nov.)
Cry, Voidbringer
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Elaine Ho. Bindery, $19.95 trade paper (424p) ISBN 978-1-964721-52-1
An unsparing look at cycles of violence, this intimate epic fantasy from debut author Ho racks up a body count worthy of Game of Thrones by pitting two oppressed groups against each other. Hammer, a young woman jilted by her ambitious lover, is a Faceless, “slave-soldiers” named by their enslavers for the weapons they bear. Lashing out at them are the “godchildren,” youngsters who manifest many different kinds of divine power, including one boy blessed by a river god with excessive sweating. Godchild Viridian, kidnapped repeatedly after the murder of her father before eventually being left in Hammer’s care, begins to express a much deadlier ability that could change the balance of power between kingdoms. Illustrator Ho makes the leap to author with a political thought experiment in the ways that power bends even the best impulses into expedient replicas of old methods of tyranny. Readers will need to wade through some harrowing scenes of betrayal and vengeance before the promise of a redemptive sequel is dangled. It’s a brutal but impressive start. Agent: Jennifer Azantian, Azantian Literary. (Oct.)
The Unveiling
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Quan Barry. Grove, $28 (320p) ISBN 978-0-80216-535-0
Making an uneven excursion into horror, Barry (When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East) offers a mind-bending exploration of grief and trauma. Film scout Striker is the only Black person on a luxury Antarctic cruise otherwise populated by über-wealthy white people. She joins a kayak excursion that ends in disaster when the guide is killed in an event that none of the group can remember. As Striker and the other now stranded survivors take shelter on an island to wait for help, the group’s mental states devolve amid the lonely and harsh landscape. The island hides strange secrets about its historical inhabitants, and Striker and the others are pushed to the brink of madness as the island uncovers their secrets as well. Hope of being rescued steadily dwindles until the group begins to doubt there’s even a world to get back to. The novel gets off to a stellar start rife with tension and satire drawn from Barry’s smart and often witty characterization, but the final act largely ignores this solid groundwork in favor of increasingly dreamlike descriptions of surreal arctic landscapes. It feels like squandered potential. Agent: Michelle Brower, Trellis Literary Management. (Oct.)
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1 - 10 of 30 Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror reviews
All around the shrine of the temple there were prayers fastened, wherever there was a place for fastening them. On the left of the altar there was a large lattice, and this lattice had hundreds of prayers attached to it, some of them folded and others open. Several old men and women were leaning against this lattice, or squatted on the floor in front of it, engaged in selling prayers; and they appeared to be doing a thriving business. The boys bought some of these prayers to send home as curiosities; and they also bought some charms and beads, the latter not unlike those used by Catholics, and having a prominent place in the Japanese worship. Then there were votive tablets on the walls, generally in the form of pictures painted on paper or silk, or cut out of thin paper, like silhouettes. One of them represents a ship on the water in the midst of a storm, and is probably the offering of a merchant who had a marine venture that he wished to have the goddess take under her protection. Shoes and top-knots of men and women were among the offerings, and the most of them were labelled with the names of the donors. These valueless articles are never disturbed, but remain in their places for years, while costly treasures of silver or gold are generally removed in a few days to the private sanctuary of the goddess for fear of accidents. Even in a temple, all the visitors cannot be trusted to keep their hands in check. It is intimated that the priests are sometimes guilty of appropriating valuable things to their own use. But then what could you expect of a lot of heathens like the Japanese? Nothing of the kind could happen in a Christian land. ASCENT OF FUSIYAMA. ASCENT OF FUSIYAMA. "Well, be quick about it, and then stand clear; we don't want any woman hurt." The key rattled at the keyhole and then dropped to the floor. "You did that by intention! Give me that key!" He tried the lock. "We've jammed it, corporal, but another good kick will fetch it; now!"--Bang!--crash!--open flew the door. "I see," said Allingham, slowly, "it is because you are, so to speak, temporarily incapacitated, that you are able to come down to the level of our world." Her hand had shot out grasping for something to steady herself on--the whole world spun around her. She had given her whole passionate, tempestuous soul to this man; she had never dreamt that she could fail to gain his love. She had never failed before, she had only required to hold up her hand. . . . Balmayne came with his burden, which he flung in and covered with a rug. He pulled at the lever, and the great machine started, and then dragged, as if some great weight was hanging on behind. The gruff voice suggested diplomacy, and promised immediate assistance. The caller had only to lie low and the desired aid should be on hand immediately. With a sense of pride and exultation Leona Lalage hung up the receiver and made her way to the dining-room. Professor Noyons took me all over the hospital, and if I should describe all I saw and heard there, that story alone would fill volumes. He took me, for example, to a boy of eight years old, whose shoulder was shattered by rifle-shots. His father and140 mother, four little brothers and a sister, had been murdered. The boy himself was saved because they thought that he was dead, whereas he was only unconscious. When I asked for his parents, brothers and sister, he put up his one hand and, counting by his little fingers, he mentioned their names. The baboo who has lost caste and been half-civilized in the Anglo-Indian colleges, is always the middleman between the Government and the poor; and he, barefaced and with no pretence of concealment, took twenty per cent. of the wages he was supposed to pay the labourers. And there were none but baboos to superintend the poorhouses and the famine-camps. It is said that during the previous famine some made fortunes of six to eight lacs of rupees (the lac is ￡10,000). But presently she stood up to go away, and her eyes caught the lowering, glazed ones of the Indian. Half involuntarily she made a motion of striking with a knife. Neither the doctor nor the steward caught it, but he did, and showed by a sudden start that he understood. Carthagena was strongly fortified, and the garrison was reinforced by the crews of a squadron lying there under Don Blas de Leon. If the place was to be assaulted, it should have been done at once; but Vernon lay perfectly inactive for five days, as if to allow the enemy to make all his preparations for defence. Notwithstanding this, the brave English erected a battery on shore, and played so effectually on the principal fort, that they soon made a breach in it, whilst the fleet fired into the harbour, thus dividing the attention of the enemy. In spite of their advantages, the Spaniards abandoned their forts and batteries, the English entered the breach, the vessels in the harbour were destroyed, and the passage cleared so that the fleet could sail in and support the army. There appeared nothing capable of preventing the conquest of the town but the cabals of the two commanders. Lord Cathcart had caught the endemic fever and died, and was succeeded by General Wentworth in command of the land forces. Wentworth had a great contempt of Vernon, and Vernon was by no means well disposed towards Wentworth. The fleet having entered the harbour, the land forces were all disembarked, and posted within a mile of Carthagena; but there the success stopped. Vernon had written home his dispatches to the Duke of Newcastle saying, "The wonderful success of this evening and night is so astounding, that we cannot but cry out, 'It is the Lord's doing, and it seems marvellous in our eyes!'" The Deacon was astonished, but in obedience to a gesture from the Provost, left the line, and came up. "Here," said the Chief Clerk, handing Shorty an official envelope, when the latter returned from having his chevrons sewed on. "Take this down to Col. Billings. Mind you do it in proper style. Don't get to sassing old Billings. Stick the envelope in your belt, walk into the office, take the position of a soldier, salute, and hand him the envelope, saying, 'With the compliments of the General,' salute again, about-face, and walk out." Another voice immediately spoke up in command: "Steady, men! Keep cool! Fire low, and give it to the blue-bellied scoundrels!" "That old-time religion." But Reuben hardly enjoyed his position as a hero. He succeeded in breaking free from the crowd, now beginning to busy itself once more with Mexico Bill, who was showing signs of returning consciousness, and plunged into the mists that spread their frost-smelling curds over the lower slopes of Boarzell. On the second day after Holgrave had become a bondman, he was summoned by an order from Calverley to go to labour for his lord. His heart swelled as he sullenly obeyed the mandate, and Margaret trembled as she saw him depart. She looked anxiously for the close of the day; and, when she saw her husband enter with some vegetables and grain that had been apportioned to him for his day's toil, her heart was glad. It was true that the gloom on his brow seemed increased, and that he threw down his load, and sat for several minutes without speaking,—but she cared not for his silence as she saw him return in safety. "I think," said Sir Robert Knowles, who saw that it was only under the influence of strong feeling that Holgrave could at present be a match for Oakley—"I think it would be better that this retainer accept the vintner's challenge; and should he worst him, then he and Holgrave can settle their quarrel, when a few days shall have given him more strength." This, despite of Holgrave's assurances that his strength was undiminished, was decided upon, and the galleyman and Oakley were directed to hold themselves in readiness to try the strength of their weapons on the morrow. They were then ordered to withdraw—Oakley and the galleyman to be lodged that night in the retainers' court, and Holgrave to tell over all he felt to the affectionate Margaret, who, for the present, at Isabella's request, was to occupy an apartment in the castle. HoME日本道一区二区免费一级毛片
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